This is the ebook Anointing - or Apostasy? The Latter Rain Legacy by Charles Graves. It is not an exhaustive treatment of all of the issues of the Charismatic movements. But it is a good starting place.

There are many theological streams and rivers, that have divided and sub-divided again within the past 20 years. However much of the charismatic movements has ties either to William BRanham (a false prophet by standard historic definitions of Christianity), or to the Church growth movement as engineered by McGavran and Peter Wagner. These movements have their roots in the movements inaugurated by those familiar with the Grubb family (UK) and Henrietta Mears who ran much of her material through Los Angeles in the 1950s. This books by Charles Graves is a good starting point for those who are trying to make sense of these movments.

IN a nutshell, it is hard to do this as words, concepts and terms are redefined, and then defined again. The entire movements therefore continue the internal shift from doctrine or the New Testament to experience based theology which asserts self-deification [ My experience is superior to what the New Testament says, and I am the final authority, not the historic Word of God]. Many of these groups functionally teach that they are themselves the incarnation od the word of God, and so what each individual decides is alright since their experience is placed on a par to, (equivalent) to the New Testament. Many of the participants in these groups display anger when asked to explain, and hide behind self-righteousness.

Very few are willing to sit down and compare what they believe with either the historic record or the New Testament. They deny being brainwashed, but they behave with many automated reactions when questioned. If they were secure in their theology and experience, what could be better than actually sharing their good news ?

Many of these groups have been accused of elitism, snobery, impatience, unkindness, carnality, and selfishness. It is hoped that this would be proved wrong. Yet, this work remains a place to start the learning process. many of the participants do not exhibit an understanding of the history, theology
or doctrines of the movement they have decided to embrace. many are openly hostile to thinking or to conversing. Often attempts degenerate into name-calling since they are not capable of reasoning through their own theology or their own experiences. Some may become upset when they read this, which rather demonstrates the point. It is easy to claim to seek truth.

TO actually do the work with intellectual rigor or effort is foreign to most of these very young people, who simply do not want the genuineness of their experience questioned. Learning to love truth and to love the New Testament is a process of the will. Many of these people do not seem to have a love of the Truth, and their understanding of how to find either God or salvation seems close to non-existent. Those who are truly Holy spirit filled demonstrate love and kindness even to those who are unkind. But the reaction is the opposite with many who attend IHOP or these other ministries. Their harsh and unkind replies to those who question them simply for information tends to show how much their connection to God or any Spirit who is Holy (the Holy Spirit) is lacking. Some of these fell away, yet many others never had the faith that they currently are claiming to embrace, hoping that your automated validation of their emotion will serve as a witness to their authenticity.

Yet the genuineness of the experience is an internal phenomenon, which in turn is validated by the Old and New testament. But the experiences and theology which they have chosen to embrace is usually in contradiction to the WOrd of God which has connected and sustained Millions of Christ-followers for 2000 years.

IN other words, rather than validating their experience, the Word of God (OT_NT) demonstrates that these experiences are often from spiritual sources that contradict what Histoiric and Early Christianity truly was and is about.

Knowing the Word of god is a core requirement of Christianity. At best, many of these followers know the theology of their leaders. They have very little understanding of the actual contents of the Old and New Testament. They will, however, be able to tell you all about new terms and words that sound really good, but are found nowhere in the Old or New Testament. Most of them follow their New Faith dedicated to the God of forces and simply label that Christian. but merely the claiming of the title does not make it so.

This Ebook helps to explain a bit about the background of the movement.


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